Sentence? “I hope you know how to analyze legal-constitutional building”

O prime Minister said today to expect “that everyone knows how to interpret” the ruling of the Lisbon Administrative Court that gave reason to a protester and “every legal-constitutional building” of the country without giving its opinion on this matter.

In a statement to the country, in the official residence of São Bento, in which there was a right to some questions from journalists, Luís Montenegro did not answer whether to call the protestors for meetings, nor whether there will be changes in police activity.

Asked if you agree with the understanding of the Minister of Internal Administration, Luís Neves, that the decision of the Administrative Court of Circle of Lisbon to circumscribe the individual situation of the applicant, Renata Cambra, the head of the PSD/CDS-PP Government did not answer directly the question.

“ What I hope is that everyone can interpret, not just the sentence to which he referred in the matter, but the whole legal-constitutional building of the country and all the social coexistence rules that make Portugal a safe country and a peaceful country”, he said.

“ A country where everyone has the right to exercise his right to present his vision and his opinion, where others also have rights that must be reconciled with him”, he continued.

The Prime Minister added that it was neither the time nor its purpose on this occasion “to feed polemic visions about events that are taking place at this time and that they have everything to be fit into the law, framed in common sense, within the relationship between institutions and between citizens”.

Luís Montenegro argued that “the Prime Minister and the Government are the ones who are asked to rule”.

“ And that's what I focus on. I am neither commentator nor politician nor, say, media. I do, I certainly do. But what the country expects from me is not that it is everyday giving an opinion about what others do, what others say, what others can make a contribution to it”, he said.

On the “manifestations that have taken place in the country”, in his speech Luís Montenegro said that “the government listens above all to the content of the ambitions and solutions demanded by people” and that Portugal is “a peaceful country” and “a country where everyone can exercise and respect their rights”.

Then he cast a set of rights: “From the outset the right of assembly, of demonstration, of free expression. But also the right of free movement, the right to quietness, the right to order, tranquility, security, the right to health and preservation of the public space and the right to exercise authority by the forces and agents who are empowered by the law and the Constitution”.

In the current context of demonstrations with tents for the right to housing, in relation to police charges to disperse protesters at dawn, the Administrative Court of Circle of Lisbon gave reason, on Sunday, to a protester, authorising her to stay in Rossio, in Lisbon, including at dawn, with a tent, until 24 November 2026.

Following this judgment, the Public Prosecutor asked the Constitutional Court to assess whether the rule of a 1974 decree-law – prior to the validity of the 1976 Constitution – which states that a demonstration has the time limit at 00:30 is unconstitutional, referring to it as a mandatory appeal.

According to the sentence, “the use of a tent by the participants in a demonstration in defense of the right to housing does not extend to the figure of a camp subject to administrative licensing”, because “it works as an integral element of the demonstration and not as an autonomous occupation of the public space dependent on prior licensing”.

On the other hand, Judge Campos states that “the Constitution does not allow automatic restrictions on fundamental rights” and refuses the application of “an absolute time limit” for demonstrations.

[News updated at 9:23 p.m.]